Tablets, laptops, phones (e.g., cellular or satellite), mobile (vehicular) or portable (personal) two-way radios, and other communication devices are now in common use by users, such as first responders (including firemen, police officers, and paramedics, among others), and provide such users and others with instant access to increasingly valuable information and resources such as vehicle histories, arrest records, outstanding warrants, health information, real-time traffic, device status information, and any other information that may aid the user.
Many such communication devices further comprise, or provide access to, a voice output and/or electronic digital assistants (or sometimes referenced as “virtual partners”) that may provide the user thereof with audible information in an automated (e.g., without further user input) and/or semi-automated (e.g., with some further user input) fashion. The audible information provided to the user may be based on explicit requests for such information posed by the user via an input (e.g., such as a parsed natural language input or an electronic touch interface manipulation associated with an explicit request) in which the electronic digital assistant may reactively provide such requested valuable information, or may be based on some other set of one or more context or triggers in which the electronic digital assistant may proactively provide such valuable information to the user absent any explicit request from the user.
A problem occurs when a user carries more than one device comprising a virtual partner. When this happens, it can be ambiguous as to what piece of equipment a voice communication is referring to. For example, if the user wants to query a virtual partner to determine what the weather is going to be like today, simply asking this question may result in many virtual partners answering the question, which can be confusing.
A solution to the above-mentioned problem is to name each virtual partner, and have the virtual partner only respond to a query once its name has been called. While this solution may alleviate the above problem, a user will be forced to remember all device names. For example, a police officer may be in their squad car with their partner. Each officer in the squad car may have multiple devices, each having their own unique virtual partner. In addition, the squad car may also have its own virtual partner. The devices used by the officers and the automobile used by the officers may change daily. Having to remember all virtual-partner names may be an unacceptable solution to the above-mentioned problem.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required.